Kayak Licence to Drill
Wednesday 7 June 2017
Statoil has been given the final official go-ahead to spud a second planned wildcat in the Barents Sea off Norway targeting the Kayak prospect near its under-development Johan Castberg field.
The drilling permit issued by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate follows recent consent from the country’s safety agency for the 7219/9-2 probe to be drilled by semi-submersible Songa Enabler in a water depth of 336 metres in Statoil-operated production licence 532.
A possible find at Kayak could be tied back to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel that is planned to develop Johan Castberg, on which a final investment decision is due to be made by the state-controlled operator later this year.
The probe, which has an estimated duration of 41 days, will be spudded shortly after Statoil was forced to halt drilling at the Blaamann prospect due to legal issues related to the use of so-called Cap-X technology.
The wells are part of a planned five-well wildcatting campaign that marks Statoil’s exploration comeback in the frontier Arctic play after a more than two-year hiatus.
Statoil holds a 50% operating stake in PL532, which hosts Castberg, with partners Eni and Petoro on 30% and 20%, respectively.
The company was meanwhile also granted safety consent on Wednesday to drill a wildcat at the Carmen prospect in the Norwegian Sea using semisub Deepsea Bergen.